Cocktails

Cocktails

While one of the bartenders at the legendary Connaught Bar in London mixes your martini tableside, you're invited to choose your bitters to complete the drink. Lavender, perhaps? Or would tonka, coriander, or cardamom please you? Oh, what about the house-developed Dr. Ago's? Whatever your choice, you feel special for having collaborated on your order. But in truth, the selection process is so carefully planned by the Connaught that they're still behind the wheel. It's customization and control in perfect balance.

One of the oldest recipes for a classic, pre-Prohibition whiskey sour calls for a simple mixture of sugar, lemon juice, and whiskey. While some renditions swap simple syrup in place of sugar or add an egg white to the recipe to give it a frothy body, another variation on this famous favorite, widely known today as the New York sour, includes a float of red wine.

When agriculture was able to meet demand, sugar prices crashed overnight. Companies that had bet big on expensive inventory suddenly found themselves drowning in debt. Pepsi declared bankruptcy. So did RC Cola's predecessor, Chero-Cola. Coca-Cola, however, managed to secure emergency financing from a bank by offering something no other company could: their closely-guarded secret formula as collateral. That gamble paid off big time.

For the uninitiated, the viral Del Destino Golden Pineapple Spears that have the internet buzzing are massive, toothy rods of pure pineapple jarred in coconut water. They're crisp, refreshing, sun-ripened, and made in Peru - nearly 2 pounds of fruit for between $6.69 and $6.79, and a shelf-stable way to enjoy a taste of the tropics even as the winter rages on.

Hidden in a Philadelphia back alley, behind a clandestine door, lies a dark yet spirited cocktail lounge. Called the Ranstead Room, it's one of Philly's best-kept secrets. The speakeasy isn't easy to find, unless you happen to be behind El Rey Mexican restaurant on Ranstead Street. And even then, you'll have to locate a discreet black door with two R's emblazoned into it. But it's worth the quest, and it's one of my favorite lairs in the city.

There are several iconic cocktails-from the Bobby Burns to the Singapore Sling to the Vieux Carré-that call on Bénédictine . But despite the cocktail revival's best efforts, there are dozens more that have remained in obscurity. Shawn Lickliter, owner of the newly opened Vandell in LA's Los Feliz neighborhood, is perhaps the perfect practitioner to steward long-lost drinks made with the liqueur back into the spotlight.

But no matter my current level of interest in the league itself, one thing I can always get behind is a game-day watch party. I'll take any excuse to gather friends, eat snacks, drink beer, and be merry, especially when I can do it all from the comfort of my own living room. What better way to spend one of the coldest months of the year?

There's something about sipping a piña colada that makes you feel like you're on vacation, even if you're just at home. Too many piña coladas taste way too sweet with only a hint of rum. But I've found out that the original recipe for this classic cocktail has a perfect balance between the pineapple juice, cream of coconut, and aged rum.

R1's "LLM-powered intelligence... distills your cravings into bespoke generative recipes" via "unlimited AI generated recipes," the device can only hold eight cocktail ingredients at a time. Consider a scenario where you load up ingredients to pump out a Manhattan - rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters - as well as a Vesper, which calls for gin, vodka, and Lillet Blanc.

The following is a roundup and ranking of a whopping 19 different bottles, and if I'm being honest, ranking them was no easy task. All of the below are either single-pour spirits or spirits that can easily be mellowed out with a cream liqueur addition (such is the case with some of the espresso/coffee/chocolate liqueurs below). So, when ranking them, I relied heavily on personal preference.

Traditionally, shrubs are made with vinegar, but for this one we use lemon juice to bring a bright sharpness to the base syrup, because it balances the earthy sweetness of the beetroot and sumac. A 0% gin brings some botanical notes to proceedings, but the syrup also works wonderfully just topped with soda water. You'll need to start the syrup a day ahead.

Pepsi isn't just a fizzy cola you sip straight from the can - it's also a zingy, sugary, effervescent secret weapon in the world of cocktails and mocktails, bringing personality and balance to your glass. A standard 12-ounce Pepsi packs about 41 grams of sugar and 150 calories, giving it a bold sweetness and enough body to stand up to spirits like rum, bourbon, and tequila, while also softening herbaceous and bitter ingredients in non-alcoholic concoctions.

Enter DeKuyper's Razzmatazz - the flavor-packed raspberry cordial. DeKuyper may be an underdog in the world of spirits, but it knows its stuff when it comes to the flavored liqueur market. That's because DeKuyper does sweet well, and it has affordability and variety covered to boot! Even if you're unfamiliar with DeKuyper's catalog, chances are you've come across a bottle of DeKuyper triple sec.

You'll first notice a change in flavor. Vermouth - a mixture of fruity wine and botanicals - will rise to the top of your palate revealing itself to be complex, spicy, and with a slightly bitter tang. Typically, these flavors are buried under a mountain of gin, so a reverse martini's actually a pretty good way to get to know vermouth.

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Since Backbar opened in 2011, tucked into a weird little former office space attached to the now-defunct Journeyman restaurant, the acclaimed cocktail bar has probably served around 3,000 distinct cocktails, according to cofounder Sam Treadway. That includes about 700 different clarified milk punches-smooth, clear drinks infused with complex flavors (his favorite tasted like trail mix)-and countless cocktails inspired by wide-ranging themes, most notably Star Wars.